Artificial Intelligence

What is AI?
It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent
computer programs.
Intelligence
Intelligence is the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world. Varying
kinds and degrees of intelligence occur in people, many animals and some machines.
Where did it start?
Dartmouth
1956

Predictions
A machine as intelligent as a human being would exist in no more than a generation.
Given millions of dollars to make this vision come true.
Underestimated the difficulty of the project.
1973
The U.S. and British Governments stopped funding undirected research into artificial
intelligence.
1980
A visionary initiative by the Japanese Government inspired governments and industry to
provide AI with billions of dollars, but by the late 80s the investors became disillusioned
and withdrew funding again.
What about now?
Progress in AI continues today
Problems that had begun to seem impossible in 1970 have been solved
Commercial products
Good or bad?
Robot revolution
Autonomous agents
Ethical issues
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being
to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such
orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict
with the First or Second Laws.
4. A human informs a particular robot that it is to turn itself off.
5. Imagine the robot believes that if it is turned off, a human or group of humans
might come to harm as a consequence at some time in the future.
6. It must thus protect its existence under rule 3 and ignore the orders being given
to it to shut down under rule 2 as these would prevent it protecting humans under
rule 1.
7. The human informs the robot that if it won't shut itself down, it will be shut down
by the human, and he/she moves to disconnect the robot's power.
8. The robot now has an impossible choice. If it does nothing and allows itself to be
shut down, it has failed under rule 1 to protect humans from harm. If it acts
violently to prevent itself being shut down, it will have harmed humans in
contravention of the first part of rule 1.